Sometimes, those who wander really are lost » michigan

Smiling

Brady — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:02:33 +0000

Yesterday, Labor Day 2011, was a pretty great day. I was surrounded by people and things that I love. Of the many many wonderful moments, one stood out that I wanted to share.

As I was shopping at Meijer for a BBQ later that day, I was wandering down the milk aisle and I noticed an old lady standing with a cart off to the side. We’re talking very old, oxygen tank old. In the cart was a baby in a car seat. For no real reason, I made eye contact and gave the woman a big grin, just because I was feeling so good. (I whistled a Guster song that was stuck in my head through the entire store, I was feeling that good.) And you know what, she gave me a genuine smile back.

And it made my day.

Last Minute Pumpkin

Brady — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 02:19:48 +0000

I didn’t think that I was going to squeeze a pumpkin carving into my festivities this Halloween, but thanks to a timely FHE activity, I got one carved just in the nick of time. I tried lighting it up, but the pumpkin is really really thick. I need to work the walls down a little bit before the effect really works.

So, in all, I managed to work in The Haunting, Chicken Shish Tawook, Count Chocula, a Cider Mill (and the resulting cider!), coloring, Catching Fire, Dominion: Seaside, refusing to dance, blue hairspray, “For All the Saints”, The Lord of all Catan, pork roast, butterfinger brownies, and pumpkin carving into my birthday weekend. That’s pretty good, right? What did you do?

Springtime Transitions

Brady — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 18:15:13 +0000

Spring is here! I usually make a big deal about spring being here on March the First, but I kept it kind of quiet this year. March was definitely spring in SE Michigan this year. (Amy even admitted as much to me. That’s kind of a big deal. )

But the springtime transitions are always kind of awkward. How do you know when its time to stop wearing your winter coat, and just bring a jacket? I’ve actually put a lot of thought into this one over the past few years… There is a point, sometime after spring has begun, where you can trust it enough to actually stop wearing a coat, where there may be some more jacket days ahead, but the coat days are behind us. I think I overcalled it this year for Michigan, but I understand that day hasn’t come yet in Utah and Wyoming. (And quit your bellyachin’, it’s the moisture you’re always praying for. )

Image: Enchanted Stairs, by abekleinfel

I have identified several other transitions that mark my spring:

1- The transition back to short sleeve shirts. I really, really like wearing sweaters, and do so for most of the winter. Unfortunately, that means an awkward (for me) transition back to just short sleeves. My arms have been covered for most of the last four months, and they just feel… well… naked. Add to that that all of my work shirts are long sleeve, and the transition to T-shirts makes for plenty of goosebumps. The transition back to shorts won’t be for another month or two.

2- The transition of waking up in the night to Thunderstorms. Got that groove on this morning. It’s been awhile, Mother Nature, since you’ve woken me up. Thanks a lot. Now I have to worry about my upstairs neighbors and thunder waking me up at 3:30 in the morning.

3- The transition back to sunglasses. During the winter, I rarely need my sunglasses. I drive to work in the dark, I drive home in the dark. Ergo, I have no idea where I stashed my shades last fall. Until I find them, my eyes are burning.

4- The transition back to green. My favorite part of spring! Suddenly one day you wake up, and BAM! Everything is green. The grass, the trees, the sidewalk where the geese hang out. It’s a beautiful thing! And then the flowers start to pop out!

5- The transition back to mosquitoes. I’ve been grilling for weeks. Ever since before that last snowstorm. Or maybe right after, I don’t remember. On Monday, I forgot to close the screen door to my patio, only to be tormented by the mosquitoes I’d let in for the next few hours. Fortunately, they’re still pretty slow, so their eradication was quick and at zero loss of blood (to me). Now I’ll just have to remember to take my bug spray with me when I go hiking.

I’m sure I’m forgetting some important spring transitions. I only usually remember after they’ve backfired on me at least once. So, now the question… What am I forgetting?

—

Cool blog update notes:
1) I think I’ve fixed the feed issues that were plaguing me over the last few weeks. You didn’t know that I was having them, because your feeds weren’t updating. They should now.
2) I updated the header with pictures that I actually took. It rotates, so keep looking for something new. I’ll try to add new ones occasionally, and remove some of the awful ones.
3) I added the Google Friend Connect box. I think it’s kind of like following, so you can, you know, follow me if you wants.

I believe in coincidence… most of the time…

Brady — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:52:00 +0000

Most of the time, I believe in coincidence. Things happen. There are results, which drive other things to happen. Sometimes something big happens, sometimes nothing happens. It’s hard to know and it’s hard to read purpose in the seeming randomness of the universe. I emphatically do not believe that everything happens for a reason, and know of no doctrine that supports the concept.

But other times, I feel like things do happen for a reason.

Take the following chain of events:
- Yesterday, my Institute class was cancelled. I was kind of excited, because I had three or four things I needed to get done sooner rather than later, and I was looking at a very busy week.

- When I got home from work, the weather was so nice, I decided to go for a walk and enjoy what may have been one of the last great days of fall. This delayed my “getting things done” but it was a good cause.

- After making several “getting things done” phone calls while I was walking, I decided to walk over to a local church which has a meditation labyrinth. I’d seen a sign for it from the road while running and walking the area, and was intrigued by the concept. I found the labyrinth and walked it, further delaying my “getting things done” time frame. (Really cool experience, by the way. Well worth it, even if I cheated and only walked in and took a shortcut out.) By the time I got home, it was starting to get dark.

- Decided to start the laundry and go shopping, in that order. I didn’t really have a shopping list, but needed to pick up a few basics.

- Headed over to Meijer, and chose a really odd parking spot, further away from the grocery door than I usually park. I had a goal of when I wanted to be back home.

- Picked up the milk and cereal and a few other things, and headed to the deli counter. The line was three deep, but the counter clerk must have been new to the deli. She was Slow. Capital S Slow. It took several minutes for her to find the meat that a person in front of me requested and then five more to get it set on the slicer and sliced. And she was the only one available. I almost left three or four times, but since I’m working on my patience, I just let it go and got what I wanted.

- After getting the bread and hummus I needed, I headed for the checkouts. I had too many items (barely) for the U-Scan, and so I tried to find a checkout with a short line that was close to the door I was parked near.

- As I was loading the belt with my stuff, I noticed the woman in front of me, who I had guessed to be either Hispanic or Asian (don’t hate me, my Hispanic and Asian friends, I wasn’t paying a lot of attention, and you see a lot of both in AA). She was using a WIC card and the checker kept taking things off the order that didn’t qualify. She looked baffled. I heard one of her daughters humming to the baby in Spanish.

Here’s that moment that it was all building up to:

- I took a chance and asked the woman in Spanish if she understood what the checker was saying. She responded that she didn’t. In my (clearly) broken Spanish, I tried to interpret. (Man, my interpretation Spanish is rusty!) I was able to explain what was going on and how she could remedy the solution. (It turned out that the juice was too small and the bread was too big.) I also helped her read the remaining benefits on her receipt.

I know I wasn’t the only person in the store who could have helped. But somehow, I was in exactly the right place at exactly the right time. If any step along my path before that had gone differently, I probably wouldn’t have been right there, right then.

Sure, coincidence happens. I’m chalking this one up in the other column though.

Tahquamenon Falls Video

Brady — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:05:00 +0000

I haven’t figured out what to blog about what I finally did for my vacation this summer, but I did put together a quick video from the trip to Tahquamenon Falls. Enjoy!

Why I did it

Brady — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 01:51:00 +0000

On Friday, almost on the spur of the moment, I signed up to run the Meteor 10K on Saturday, part of the Martian Invasion of Races in Dearborn. I had originally played with the idea of this race as a tune-up midway through my training for the half-marathon, but those hopes were dashed by my misunderstanding of when exactly the race fell. I was expecting it to be at the end of April, but when it turned out to be at the beginning of April instead, I lost a little interest in it.

Last week was a fairly good week for running, after completing the treadmill challenge with an 11% improvement and a successful short run earlier in the week. I was vacillating a little back and forth with deciding on this race. I thought that I was capable of running the 6.2 miles of a 10K, but I wasn’t sure. After the last few failures, I think I had a lost a little bit of confidence that I was on track for half-marathon goal.

One of my co-workers had been training for the Martian Half-marathon, and my supervisor had been planning to run the Meteor 10K as well. By Friday morning, I was feeling good, and decided I should just take the plunge, and do it. I hesitated throughout the day, not really sure if I was going to do it. At one point, I pegged it at 95% certainty, which is like saying yes, but with an escape hatch if I chicken out. After work, I went over and registered.

At that point I got the pre-race jitters, even though I was focused on making this a training run and nothing more or less. That, I think, is also an important part of practicing for a run. But I was in, and at the very least, I had my new technical running shirt (which for me is a huge motivator).

As it turns out, I’ll do almost anything for a Technical Shirt. Isn’t this one wild?

It turns out I was exactly capable of running 10K. The race went very very well. I stopped for short walk breaks at 2 and 4 miles, just like my plan has me doing. I maintained a fairly consistent pace, right at 10 minute miles, right on plan. The race started out cold and windy, but after about mile 2 you stop noticing that. Around mile 4 and a half, we ran by the Henry Ford Estate, and there were delicate bluebells blooming alongside the road. In short, it was a beautiful day for a race.

More importantly, however, was the sense of accomplishment that came with it.
March, as you may have heard, was a difficult month for goal achievement for me. I struggled with my writing goal, and I struggled with my running goals. The two long runs that I attempted failed. In fact, I was supposed to have been at 7 miles by now, and I hadn’t successfully completed anything longer than 5. Tackling this 10K, for which I hadn’t specifically trained, and actually feeling good at the end of it was validation that things would work out.

Here’s the race. I got a new toy: a Garmin Forerunner 305, which is a GPS watch that will let me track my runs better.
&lt;a href=”http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-states/mi/dearborn/956123885768364095″&gt;Meteor 10K – 4/4/09&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;a href=”http://www.mapmyrun.com/find-run/united-states/mi/dearborn”&gt;Find more Runs in Dearborn, Michigan&lt;/a&gt;

Pi Day recap

Brady — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 01:15:00 +0000

Just a picture. Pi Day was great, but it was weeks ago now. I finally got my computer, my camera, and the appropriate cord together in the same place.

Why I love geocaching

Brady — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:53:00 +0000

Tonight for Family Home Evening in my ward, we had several spotlights featuring the hobbies and talents of several people in the ward. I was asked to talk about geocaching, one of my unhealthy obsessions. I made a quick video slide show of some of my favorite geocaching moments. I figured it would make good blog fodder, but then I realized it was 7 minutes long and silent, so it probably wouldn’t go over well. So I shortened it and added music, which makes it infinitely cooler, right?

Here’s some of what I had to say:

When I was a kid, I loved exploring my great-grandfather’s farm. I was convinced that somewhere on the farm was a buried treasure. I hunted all over the place for a clue that would lead me to another clue that would eventually lead me to the place where all the gold was buried. It was great fun, but it wasn’t until years later that I realized that farmers rarely had enough gold to bother burying it and that pirates rarely stopped in Wyoming.

When I first heard of geocaching, I was immediately intrigued. I remembered back to my treasure hunting days on the farm. Here was a real sport where people hid treasures (ok, boxes with treasure (ok, McDonalds toys) inside) all over the world, and then gave you the GPS coordinates to them and sent you off to find them. How cool was that? Grownup high-tech treasure hunting! Awesome.

I couldn’t afford a GPS when I first heard about it, but I tucked it away in the “I’ll do that later” file. By the time I graduated from grad school, I had had my first taste of geocaching with a friend’s GPS and now could afford one. I was still looking for a job, and had quite a bit of spare time on my hands. So I got my GPS and enjoyed finding and hiding caches all over Salt Lake City.

When I moved to Michigan, geocaching helped me get to know the area and the people. It took me places I probably wouldn’t have gone to by myself. I would have never found Hines Drive or the Metroparks or Belle Isle without geocaching. I would have missed some of the most beautiful places in Michigan.

For me, it’s really about the places and the people that you encounter while geocaching.

I have geocached in three countries, seven US states, and about 1/3 of Michigan’s counties. Other places I’ve cached:

The Huron River from a kayak
The Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan Mexico
The tops of the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming
Sleeping Bear Dunes
Cache County Utah
Downtown Toronto
Maybury State Park (a Michigan state park that used to be a Tuberculosis Sanatorium)
Multiple Pioneer Cemeteries
Henry Ford’s house
The campuses of the University of Wyoming, the University of Utah, the University of Michigan, and Eastern Michigan University.

Geocaching is a lot of fun for many types of people. One of the things that surprised me was the number of retirees that participate. There is really something for everyone. If you’re interested in a long hike to a beautiful waterfall, you’ve got that. If you want to try out scuba diving, there are caches set for you. If you want to solve a puzzle, if you’re just bored and want to explore your neighborhood, if you’re out running errands and you need to kill a few minutes, there’s a cache for you.

I’ve cached with many different people. Among the highlights:

My two and four year old nephews
Both of my grandfathers
Many of the people on my blog-roll
A hilarious nurse from Chelsea Michigan
Several dates, one of which I showed off for by falling (gracefully) into the Huron River in late March.

One of the rules of geocaching is that when you find the cache, you have to sign the logbook. Imagine how surprised I’ve been to be caching in Utah on visits to see my family, and to open a cache and see that it has been signed just before me by someone I know from Michigan. It’s happened twice!

Another rule is that if you want to take something from the cache, you should leave something else for the next finder. I love to trade out signature items, little cards and trinkets that identify the person. Many times its just a laminated business card or something like that but I once found a Smiley face stamp from someone called “S5280ft.” Geocachers are pretty clever.

I once heard a statistic that made me sad: the average American spends only 6 minutes outside per day and that is usually spent walking to or from a car. I have no idea if that is true or not, but Geocaching is one way to get past that 6 minute barrier. I found a sport that has lots of variety, that takes me places I’ve never been with great people. I highly recommend it.

Here’s that video that I was telling you about:

The Case for Spring

Brady — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 03:42:00 +0000

While I know that it is controversial, for me, the end of February marks the end of Winter. With March comes the beginning of spring. I don’t wait until that whole March 21 thing, or even daylight savings. I want spring, and I want it now.

I abhor February. It is my least favorite month of them all. It’s dark and dreary. This year, we had a wonderful warm snap in which I almost forgot that it was February. I even (perhaps ill-advisedly) ran outdoors several times. I even got to drive home in the sun a few times. But it was still February. I did some googling, and found this quote, which about sums up how I feel.

“February is a suitable month for dying. Everything around is dead, the trees black and frozen so that the appearance of green shoots two months hence seems preposterous, the ground hard and cold, the snow dirty, the winter hateful, hanging on too long.”
- Anna Quindlen, One True Thing

But now we’re in March. And March is Spring.

Here’s why:
1- March is warmer than February. I found this graph that proves it.

2- I fell into the Huron in March. If it were winter, #1 I wouldn’t have been able to fall in and #2, if I had, I would have been much colder than I was. You can’t see it in this picture, but my feet are bare also. Would I be walking around barefoot in the winter? No, I would not.

3- You can fly kites in March. Doing so in February is just dumb.

4- Sometimes, Easter happens in March. Bunnies wouldn’t lay eggs in winter, would they?

5- You couldn’t Spring forward for daylight savings time if it weren’t spring. (Don’t forget, March 8th this year!)

6- If you talk about spring snow storms, it feels like they might go away soon. When you talk about winter snow storms, you just get depressed.

7- According to this website, maple syrup production in Michigan starts in spring, which is clearly at least in March.

Last but possibly most important:
March isn’t February. And while every day in February feels the same, every day in March could be something completely different. One day in March, the birds will be back. One day in March, the Huron will flow again. One day in March, the flowers will bloom and the grass will green. These are not things you can say about February. They are only things you can say about March.

I know it isn’t full on Spring yet. It’s definitely not even the best part of Spring. That comes later, in April, in Michigan at least. (Not until at least the end of May in some parts of Wyoming, and then it is only iffy at best). But for me, March is like reading your favorite book. You know how it’s going to end, and you can’t wait to get there.

Citrus Season

Brady — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 04:02:00 +0000

citrus
Originally uploaded by niznoz

I realized the other day that I have an unhealthy relationship with Citrus.

It’s like one of those on-again, off-again marriages. I never really know when winter starts if I am going to have one of those years where I love citrus or one where I hate citrus.

It’s truly unnerving how inconsistent I am. Last winter was definitely an on-again season. I was eating all of the oranges that came my way. This winter, however, I’ve been even more back and forth about it than usual. To start the season off, sometime back in November, I was at Meijer, and they had a 2-for-1 special on oranges. Usually, I wouldn’t even consider purchasing two bags of oranges. I would never get through them in a normal season. Something clicked in my head, and I ended up with a lot of oranges at home. Fortunately, it just so happened that these were some of the best oranges that I’d ever had (or at least since last winter), and while I did share them out, I did manage to get them all eaten.

However, at some point just before Christmas, I purchased three lemons. I have no idea why. There was a good reason in there somewhere. Maybe I was going to zest them and some oranges and maybe some limes, and dehydrate the zest so I’d have delicious zest any time I wanted. I don’t think I was planning to make lemonade. That would have stuck with me. They’re sitting in my refrigerator, waiting for me to remember what I was going to do with them.

But then for New Year’s, I picked up a box of Clemantines, and after they weren’t finished at the party I took them to, I feasted on them, multiple times a day until I ran out. (Which wasn’t that long, incidentally, because of the multiple feastings.) I couldn’t get enough of them.

And so I thought I was having a good year for citrus. I bought another bag of oranges… and this time they’re just sitting there on my microwave. I even managed to finish a bunch of bananas before they all went black (which never happens) but my oranges just sit there. Every once in a while I’ll eat one out of obligation. I took one to work for an afternoon snack at some point last week, and I didn’t eat it until Friday, and then only because I needed a break, and peeling it would give me an excuse to get away from my desk.

In the world of citrus, there are only three things that are certain for me:
1- I will always hate grapefruit.
2- I will always love lime.
3- I will always ask about lemonade at a restaurant, but very rarely order it. (I can’t take a cloyingly sweet lemonade. The drink is supposed to be about the lemons, not the sugar.)

That’s all I really know. I wish my relationship with citrus could be as predictable as my relationship with say, apples, or cookies. (love both, by the way.) I have theories as to why it’s not. Most of them have to do with scurvy. But at the very least, figuring out if I’m going to like citrus in a given year makes for an interesting guessing game.